SIBO Test

 Recently, I had to undertake the SIBO 10 tube Lactulose breath test. The test itself wasn't too bad. But the preparation was the worst part. For 12 hours, you follow a strict diet, then you do a 12 hour fast, and after that, you do the 2.5 hour test.

The allowed foods on the diet were only:

Eggs

Lean meat (baked or broiled)

White Rice

Black Coffee

Plain Tea

Water

For seasoning? Minimal salt, pepper, and olive oil. That's it.

I bought a box of white rice, two ham steaks, and a dozen eggs. For lunch, I hard boiled some eggs, made the white rice, and lightly pan fried, without oil, a ham steak. It was ok. 

I called the testing company to see if chicken stock was allowed, as it was allowed from different companies, and I learned that it is, if it doesn't have seasoning. I also asked about my ham. Oh, that is NOT allowed! Crud. I can't start the diet now, because it would be awful to start the fasting between 12:30am and 12:30pm, then have the test (with no food or liquid except water) and not eat until around 3pm that day, I decided to scratch the day off, go to the grocery store for some decaffeinated black tea, non seasoned chicken stock, and Approved Ham. I was getting tired of plain water. I learned later that the least exciting chicken stock was still unapproved (and upon a taste test after the SIBO breath test was over, it was definitely the most boring stock I've had.)

Tuna steaks were on sale, and this is a ridiculous diet, so I decided I could lightly sear some tuna steaks, and chop that up into some rice and over easy eggs to have more flavor on the boring rice. That wasn't too bad of a meal, and ended up having half the tuna steak left for dinner, along with another cup of rice and three eggs, again over easy. 

I woke up at 7:30am the next morning, as 8:30am would be the minimal start time for the test, and I needed to be awake and not exercise for an hour before starting the test. I got a glass of water out of the fridge and set it on the counter, as I needed to drink it at room temperature along with a 'substrate' mixed in, after the first test, then continue the test for the next two hours after the water.

I blew into ten test tubes with 15 minutes between each tube, labeled them with the date and time, packaged them back up and dropped them off at UPS. I'm interested to know what the results are - I have a follow up appointment with my GI doc in mid December, and perhaps this will shed some light into my mysterious condition!